Parrot

Parrot, which brings your connected home out to the garden, has partnered with IFTTT on a slew of recipes that make sure your plants are healthy no matter what. The device, which makes a sly home next to your plants, measures the growth of the plant and soil for a balanced, healthy flower or plant.

Parrot's hanger of drones is getting bigger, with the new Bebop Drone joining rather than replacing the AR.Drone 2. The new model flies further, promises to shoot better quality video, and has a smarter autopilot on-board, but it's also going to cost more than the AR.Drone 2 it will sit alongside on store shelves. So, will it be worth the upgrade?

Parrot is taking to the skies again with the Parrot Bebop Drone, focusing on high-definition video recording with no moving camera parts, unlike rivals like the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+. Building on Parrot's two generations of AR.Drone, the new quadricopter is smaller, smarter, and more maneuverable than the drones that came before it; we grabbed some time at the controls - including using Oculus Rift integration to make you feel like you're riding along - to find out more.

Parrot has done it again, this time with their Jumping Sumo remote device. Unlike the civil drone, the Sumo rolls and tumbles, grabs as it leaps. It’s controlled via an app, and has a front facing camera for all kinds of shenanigans. For pure fun, the Jumping Sumo might take the cake at CES 2014.

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This week the folks at Parrot have announced that they're working with Microsoft closely to release not only apps and connections between Windows Phone and their Parrot.AR Drone 2.0 and Zik, but Windows 8 as well. This means that you'll be able to work closely with the Zik headphones and pilot this beastly drone from your Windows 8 desktop or tablet as well as Windows Phone 8 devices in the very near future.

The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 has been on the scene essentially dominating the press for its unique segment - smartphone-controlled drones - for some time, but until now only in a couple of color combinations. Here in the Fall of 2013, the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 suits up for hunting season. Three different color combinations are set to be available soon in an "Elite Edition" of the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 from the folks at Parrot include Sand, Snow, and Jungle.

Parrot has confirmed launch details for its Flower Power plant monitoring sensor, the wireless plastic shrub that shares pot space with your petunia and tells your iPhone when it needs water. Shown off at CES back in January, though with no price attached, the Parrot Flower Power uses Bluetooth LE to push information on soil moisture, fertilizer, ambient temperature, and light intensity to the companion app, which can then give advice on different types of plant, where they should be placed during the day, and what might be wrong for them.

It's not often that you hear about a device - what's essentially a high-powered toy - breaking records flying across international waters. That's what's happened this week, though, as Parrot engineers have successfully programmed their AR.Drone 2.0 to fly across the Bosphorus Straight in Turkey - that's more than a kilometer - with a single battery. This device was recently given a bit of a reboot with the release of a new "High Density Battery", so as you can guess, that's exactly what this unit was deployed with.

While it might seem a little absurd to fly the mobile device-friendly AR.Drone 2.0 with more propellers then it already has - have no fear - the "Power Edition" of the device delivers said extras as replacements for customization only. This reboot of the rather popular AR.Drone 2.0 works with the same base device as the original, delivering with it a "Piano Black" indoor hull and outdoor hull. The propeller additions come in three sets: blazing red, fiery orange, and cool blue.